# First use of the 'gravitational slingshot' in fiction? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 4, 2021, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-use-of-the-gravitational-slingshot-in-fiction/929611 "2021-01-04T03:29:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2021, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-use-of-the-gravitational-slingshot-in-fiction/929611/1 "2021-01-04T03:29:47Z")
The title is the topic. As someone noted on Twitter this seems to be quite the overworn trope, especially lately (it was used in the latest George Clooney movie, Midnight Boredom… er, Sky, sorry… ) and I’m wondering when it was _first_ used, as well as other memorable uses of this. I seem to recall this being done in a TOS episode, one where Kirk, etc, went back in time…? Does this sound right? ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2021, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-use-of-the-gravitational-slingshot-in-fiction/929611/2 "2021-01-04T04:04:31Z")
The correct term is gravity assist or swingby maneuver, and although the mathematics of the maneuver were developed by Soviet mathematician Yuri Kondratyuk and later Friedrich Zander in the 1920s even though the first practical use for interplanetary flight was in 1973 with Pioneer 10. The _Star Trek_ (Original Series) episodes where a “slingshot maneuver” was referenced it was used in some nebulous fashion along with ‘warp drive’ to facilitate time travel into the past, so I don’t know that I would actually count it as a specific reference to actual swingby maneuvers. I don’t know about this being an “overworn trope”; I’m hard pressed to recall many science fiction media where it is actually referenced. _The Expanse_ (the show, and to a lesser extent, the books) has made use of swingby maneuvers, often exaggerating the effect that they would have in reality, but beyond that it is really limited to really hard science fiction. For the most part, spacecraft in science fiction are assumed to be able to fly from Point A to Point B without much reference to external gravity fields or limits of propulsive capability. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2021, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-use-of-the-gravitational-slingshot-in-fiction/929611/3 "2021-01-04T04:31:28Z")
I thought they did a GA in Star Trek: The One With The Whales? ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2021, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-use-of-the-gravitational-slingshot-in-fiction/929611/4 "2021-01-04T04:36:49Z")
I believed that a gravitational slingshot was used in _The Martian_, both the book and the movie. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2021, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-use-of-the-gravitational-slingshot-in-fiction/929611/5 "2021-01-04T06:18:18Z")
Don’t know when the first one was, but There’s A TV Trope For That. > **[Spaceship Slingshot Stunt - TV Tropes](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SpaceshipSlingshotStunt)** > > The Crew of the Cool Starship is on the verge of a planet's gravity well or near an Unrealistic Black Hole. Perhaps they are too close for the engines to escape gravity's grasp. Perhaps an enemy ship is closing them. All seems lost... Then the … ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2021, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-use-of-the-gravitational-slingshot-in-fiction/929611/6 "2021-01-04T08:23:40Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > (it was used in the latest George Clooney movie, Midnight Boredom… er, Sky, sorry… ) It was? Jeez, I sat through all of that and I don’t remember it. Though I WAS definitely bored. Perhaps I drifted off during that part. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2021, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-use-of-the-gravitational-slingshot-in-fiction/929611/7 "2021-01-04T13:49:27Z")
I would be completely unsurprised if the first fictional use were in one of Heinlein’s books. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2021, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-use-of-the-gravitational-slingshot-in-fiction/929611/8 "2021-01-04T13:51:41Z")
A gravity assist is done in Methuselah’s Children as I recall (with some unique variations, of course). ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2021, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-use-of-the-gravitational-slingshot-in-fiction/929611/9 "2021-01-04T14:08:41Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > the first practical use for interplanetary flight was in 1973 with Pioneer 10. I’m reluctant to quibble with **Stranger** , especially on space ballistics, but according to the Wikipedia article on the topic: > [@](#): > > The gravity assist maneuver was first used in 1959 when the Soviet probe [Luna 3](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_3) photographed the far side of Earth’s Moon. The maneuver relied on research performed under the direction of [Mstislav Keldysh](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mstislav_Keldysh) at the [Steklov Institute of Mathematics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steklov_Institute_of_Mathematics)[[12]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_assist#cite_note-12) by, amongst others, Vsevolod Alexandrovich Egorov.[[13]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_assist#cite_note-13)[[14]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_assist#cite_note-14) > **[Gravity assist](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_assist#:~:text=In%20orbital%20mechanics%20and%20aerospace,to%20save%20propellant%20and%20reduce)** > > A gravity assist, gravity assist maneuver, swing-by, or generally a gravitational slingshot in orbital mechanics, is a type of spaceflight flyby which makes use of the relative movement (e.g. orbit around the Sun) and gravity of a planet or other astronomical object to alter the path and speed of a spacecraft, typically to save propellant and reduce expense. > Gravity assistance can be used to accelerate a spacecraft, that is, to increase or decrease its speed or redirect its path. The "assist" i... ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2021, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-use-of-the-gravitational-slingshot-in-fiction/929611/10 "2021-01-04T14:15:42Z")
According to The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Eric Frank Russell used gravity assist in his 1941 story _Jay Score_. It’s an essential part of the plot. I’ve read the story, but it’s been a long time, and I’m not sure of the details, but you can usually trust the ESF to be accurate. Intriguingly, Russell was not primarily a hard-science writer, being better known for his humor. I would’ve expected a more technical writer, like Arthur C. Clarke or (as suggested above) Robert Heinlein to be the first to use the concept. > **[Encyclopedia of Science Fiction](https://books.google.com/books?id=AJxbAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA1855&lpg=PA1855&dq=%22Encyclopedia%2Bof%2Bscience%2Bfiction%22%2B%22slingshot%2Beffect%22&source=bl&ots=0Tm0QgPNt0&sig=ACfU3U3jpQGGyLg8dOn6Aa7YJHHMNkD1Rg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjk8YbYuoLuAhXtx1kKHfupCRsQ6AEwBHoECAcQAg#v=onepage&q=%22Encyclopedia%20of%20science%20fiction%22%20%22slingshot%20effect%22&f=false)** > > Presents articles on the science fiction genre of literature, including authors, themes, significant works, and awards. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2021, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-use-of-the-gravitational-slingshot-in-fiction/929611/11 "2021-01-04T14:28:07Z")
Lol. ISWYDT. … I think. Anyway, the GA is how they got back to Miracle Planet. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2021, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-use-of-the-gravitational-slingshot-in-fiction/929611/12 "2021-01-04T14:30:42Z")
That one, to the extent that it corresponded to real-world physics at all, was about light pressure, not gravity. I was thinking that The Rolling Stones was more likely. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2021, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-use-of-the-gravitational-slingshot-in-fiction/929611/13 "2021-01-04T14:36:39Z")
_The Rolling Stones_ does feature an [Oberth effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oberth_effect) maneuver. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2021, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-use-of-the-gravitational-slingshot-in-fiction/929611/14 "2021-01-04T14:38:54Z")
Yeah, you’re right. The light pressure was the key there. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2021, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-use-of-the-gravitational-slingshot-in-fiction/929611/15 "2021-01-04T15:23:55Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > > [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > > > the first practical use for _ **interplanetary flight** _ was in 1973 with Pioneer 10. > > I’m reluctant to quibble with **Stranger** , especially on space ballistics, but according to the Wikipedia article on the topic: I was going to say that _Luna 3_ didn’t really count because they used the Moon’s gravity to merely shape the trajectory around the far side, but upon further reading I do see that it was also used to affect a plane change and return the spacecraft to Earth where it could transmit the pictures it took from the unseen face of the Moon. It is not an interplanetary flight, though (at least, not by current IAU guidelines, although the Moon is large enough to be considered a dwarf planet in its own right if it were not a moon) so _Pioneer 10_ is still the first interplanetary swing-by maneuver, which is amazing when you actually consider the precision required to execute the maneuver successfully, and it paved the way for _Mariner 10_, the _Voyager_ spacecraft, and pretty much all other interplanetary missions except pseudo-Hohmann trajectories direct to Mars. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2021, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-use-of-the-gravitational-slingshot-in-fiction/929611/16 "2021-01-04T15:46:32Z")
BTW, I wrote a Mailbag article for this many moons ago [apologies] which has since been lost to the mists of time, but it didn’t address any use of swing-by maneuvers in fiction because there really aren’t many and none that I though were worth referencing. I just now recalled another one, though, in Larry Niven’s _Protector_, where a maneuver around an unknown non-rotating neutron star is used to misdirect and destroy pursuing Pak ships. There is a Steven Baxter short story (the name eludes me but it was part of his Xeelee Sequence) that used a black hole in a similar fashion, although the pursued ship, moving very close to the speed of light, steals all of the momentum from the black hole causing the pursuer’s vessel to fall into the even horizon and be destroyed. For the most part, however, science fiction assumes ships with propulsive systems that take them from Planet A to Planet B without mucking about with gravity assists and the fine details of orbital mechanics. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2021, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-use-of-the-gravitational-slingshot-in-fiction/929611/17 "2021-01-04T16:47:39Z")
Spoiler alert The title character in _Jay Score_ is a robot, _J-20_. Eric Frank Russell, Isaac Asimov, and other writers were transforming the alphanumeric “names” of robots into things less mechanical ages before George Lucas gave us Artoo-Detoo (R2D2) and See-Threepio (C-3PO) ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2021, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-use-of-the-gravitational-slingshot-in-fiction/929611/18 "2021-01-04T16:54:16Z")
A slingshot from the opposite directon is breaking. KSR’s _Aurora_ uses a shit-ton of those. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2021, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-use-of-the-gravitational-slingshot-in-fiction/929611/19 "2021-01-04T17:35:16Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > A slingshot from the opposite directon is breaking. Shouldn’t that be “braking”? ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2021, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-use-of-the-gravitational-slingshot-in-fiction/929611/20 "2021-01-04T18:29:00Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Shouldn’t that be “braking”? Not if you do it wrong. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-use-of-the-gravitational-slingshot-in-fiction/929611.md?page=2)